Beyond External Challenges, Female Musicians Tackle Internal Struggles

Women in the music industry face several challenges from discrimination to sexual harassment. Beyond these external challenges, women wrestle with internal struggles more threatening to their professional career, that if not surmounted, deters their growth in the industry.

Women In Music Bootcamp, provided a safe space for Abuja female musicians to express their internal struggles, fears, doubts, lack of self-confidence, desires for external validation, creative ruts, search for authenticity among others to flourish in Nigeria’s music industry.

Funded by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (ALCERCA) and organized by Alte Management, the bootcamp had musicians such as singing duo, Tara X Bella, and winner of the Vis-à-Vis music festival, Ruth Mahogany, among others as facilitators at the event.

The facilitators shared with the 20 participants experiences and tips to overcoming internal conflicts that plague female musicians, in addition to technical skills such as music production, basic information on structure of the music business as well as finding their creative identity.

Mahogany who worked with the women in building their self-confidence and fuelling their creative juices said women artistes battle internally stereotypes. These stereotypes she said come in several forms – family’s expectation, unspoken social biases like women not meant to be as ambitious as men, and desire for external validation “in their journey as individuals and artistes.

She encouraged female musicians to eschew all stereotypes or biased perspectives of what artistes are and to speak the truth to themselves at all times.

“We arrived at the resolution that nobody conquers your fears for you. You have to do it yourself. I also shared about activities that can help declutter thoughts to keep them creating – including basic skills on music production technology.

“I expect them to keep working. A lot of things about my growth was not based on having financiers rather finding ways to continue working even when gigs are not coming,” said Mahogany.

On their part, Tara X Bella, talked about building self-confidence as a means to maintaining one’s values and authenticity without bowing to pressure or excluded from the industry.

“Let that confidence be an anchor, that stems from knowing who you are and being comfortable with who you are. When you feel excluded, which happens a lot, you need confidence to create your own opportunities,” said Bella.

Speaking from the duo’s personal experience, Tara said creating opportunities for themselves is an effective way of fighting against discrimination in the industry.

“One major recurrent challenge against female musicians is not even being given the opportunity. Music is a male dominated industry. There is the belief that maintaining a music artiste is expensive, more so maintaining women artistes who are more high maintenance than men. I don’t necessarily believe that. However, when you consider maintaining women’s hair, clothes, make-up, not to mention the fact that women get pregnant, or the monthly visitor which can dis-stabilise women, things like these short-change us and give us less opportunity than our male counterparts.

“But we have gotten to the place where we create opportunities for ourselves. We don’t wait for invitations to perform in a show. If we have music to release, we create our own event. We also organize events and put other people on our platform.”

Tara further urged female musicians to set personal boundaries, and speak up when those boundaries are being crossed without fear of being labelled unlikeable.

“It is better to establish your boundaries, so people know what you will or will not tolerate rather than let everything slide because you want to be liked.”

Speaking of the workshop experience, poet Pelemo Onyaju commended the opportunity it has granted her to be with fellow female creatives, to learn how best to produce and sell her poetry pieces, and turn her passion into profits.

“I realise that I need to make money from passion. If I keep doing things for passion alone, without financial earnings from it I’ll be frustrated.”

Describing the effort by Spain to support various parts of Nigeria’s vast and varied cultures, cultural officer, Spanish embassy, Eva Barta expressed optimism that it’ll help participants build networks and empower themselves.

“We know that woman still have a long way to go in the industry, and we try to help and support as much as we can women in any field of culture. Who knows what may come from it? We are trying to reach out as much as we can with our budget as many sectors of the culture industry in Nigeria, like theatre, literature and journalism, as we have done in the past.